“impatience is a form of unbelief. it’s what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God’s timing or the goodness of his guidance…the opposite of impatience is not a glib, superficial denial of frustration. the opposite of impatience is a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness either to wait for God where you are in the place of obedience, or to persevere at the pace he allows on the road of obedience – to wait in his place, or to go at his pace.” —john piper

the great tragedy is not mainly believers in Jesus continuing to commit acts of sin. the tragedy is that satan uses the guilt of these failures to strip you of every radical dream you ever had, or might have, and in its place give you a happy, safe, secure, american life of superficial pleasures until you die in your lakeside rocking chair, wrinkled and useless, leaving a big fat inheritance to your middle-aged children to confirm them in their worldliness. that’s the main tragedy. – john piper